Technology giant set to inaugurate first development center outside US at Haifa's Scientific Industries Center, due to its proximity to Technion

Assaf Gilad, Calcalist|Published: 16.12.11 , 15:10

New details on Apple’s plans to establish a new development center in Israel revealed: Calcalist has learned that the technology giant named Aharon Aharon, former head of Zoran Corporation’s R&D center, as head of its new center in Israel.

Calcalist has also learned that a delegation headed by Apple VP Ed Frank is currently visiting Israel to meet with several high-tech companies. Frank took a tour of Haifa and visited Intel’s headquarters in the city’s Scientific Industries Center (MATAM).

Developer of smartphone memory enhancement technology negotiating with American technology giant, with price tag ranging between $400-500 million. If deal materializes, it will be Apple's first acquisition in Israel

He is examining the north park of the center as a possible location for Apple’s center, Calcalist learned.

Although the search for a location is still preliminary, Apple is showing interest in that specific location due to its proximity to the Technion – Israel's Institute of Technology, thereby joining a slew of global technology leviathans which opened centers in the area such as Intel, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and Qualcomm.

Calcalist has learned that at the same time, Apple is in advanced stages of talks for the acquisition of Israeli startup Anobit, the developer of a data signal processing (DSP) technology which enhances flash memories.

Aharon Aharon is a veteran hardware professional who served for 14 years in numerous executive positions in the Haifa science industry center. He founded Zoran and later went on went on to manage Camero – a tactical military imaging solution developer.

In the past year, Aharon has headed Disctretix which develops embedded security solutions for cellular devices. Aharon was unavailable for comment.

The connection between Apple’s plans for a new development center in Israel and negotiations over Anobit is yet unclear, but it is evident that Apple is making a major move by opening its first overseas center in Israel.

The center will deal in developing flash storage technologies for the company’s cellular and iPad devices and also in the development of the A5 CPUs.

Apple’s new center will probably operate similarly to the model Intel employs at its Haifa R&D center and develop hardware components for the CPUs developed in Cupertino, California based on the company’s past acquisitions of PA Semi and Intrinsity.